If there was only one thing I took away from E3 this year, it would be that bows and arrows are the new assault rifle in gaming. You may be asking yourself “but wait, aren’t they harder to aim, and they shoot extremely slow?” Yes. However, it appears that the “Bad Ass Level” of a video game character holding a bow and arrow has shot through the roof this year. No longer does holding a giant chainsaw/assault rifle render you the coolest kid in digital town, oh no, the bow is now mightier than the gun. Don’t believe me? Lets look at a few examples:

During Microsoft’s annual E3 Press Conference, we got to see the newly reborn Lara Croft. Doing what she does best: getting the shit beaten out of her. Apparently the folks over at Crystal Dynamics have a sick fetish for pain as Ms. Croft gets thrashed, bashed and ripped to pieces. Literally to the point of which no mortal man (or woman) would carry on. While the fact that Lara is being thrown around as a “pain sponge” is pretty cool, it wasn’t until she whipped out her mighty bow and silently took out a guy from behind that you knew she really meant business. Through all the pain and turmoil you have to endure, watching Lara be ripped of any humanity left in her body, it becomes instantly worth it, just for that satisfying moment of pure archery bliss.

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The Crysis series is synonymously known for having some of the best visuals in the FPS genre. As well as for pushing the limits of your computer’s RAM with its impressively bad ass game engine. In a game about technology, power ups and guns that shoot 500 rounds per-second, you start to ask yourself; “how cool is this really?” I mean, there are plenty of other sci-fi shooters that have similar types of power armor and advanced weaponry. What makes Crysis 3 stand out in the sci-fi FPS genre? Then without fail, they hit us with the future of bow and arrow technology. Yes that’s right, in a game where guns shoot 500 rounds per second, the most bad ass moments will absolutely be had by shooting only 1 round per-second. With none other than a futuristic bow and arrow.

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When Ubisoft showed Assassins Creed 3 at their press conference, I figured that there would be plenty of bad ass moments given the game’s lineage. Stealth take downs, tree jumping, bear wrestling, even running straight past hundreds of red coats to take down one lone Templar General. But nope, none of that was quite as impressive as Conner’s archery skills while taking down an elk. Even in the sizzle trailer, we’re treated to a slow motion jump over a crowd while shooting his bow. How bad ass is that? So let’s see, we have “beaten and battered” archery, “futuristic” archery, and now “Revolutionary War” archery. What could be more bad ass than that?

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Trippy archery. Far Cry opened its demo with a half naked woman dry humping the main character on a live stream to millions of viewers. They also dropped the F bomb like 400 times during said live stream. That seems like a pretty bad ass start; however, this trippy drug induced demo showed off more then just assault rifles and tits. Much like how we saw Lara creep up behind a guy and give him a sweet taste of iron and wood, Far Cry 3 offered a similar scenario, only suggesting that you could be firing said arrow while hallucinating from whatever the secrets of the island holds. That’s right, Far Cry 3 has a bow, and its what? ba… wicked.

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Last but not least (see what I did there), during Sony’s stage demo of The Last of Us, we got to see bricks being thrown, guns being shot, heads being slammed brutally into desks and even a head being blown off with a shotgun. But, for a brief moment, when Joel reaches into his backpack for supplies, you get a glimpse at what types of items you will be carrying. One of those items? Yup, you guessed it. Batteries. That’s right, imagine running through a dark dank area with your flash light out, and you hear the sound of plant like zombies scurrying behind you. You turn around to confirm your suspicion when, BAM! Your batteries are dead, and inevitably you are too. Pretty bad ass if I do say so myself.